The Preternatural Chronicles: Books 0-3
Page 45
Doc nodded and inserted a syringe into the vial, pulling out the 5 cc it held. He inserted the liquid into the IV line and we all waited. I could hear Joey breathing heavily again, as if questioning his own decision; but there was no going back now. His breathing increased until he was near hyperventilating.
“Wait!” Joey cried out, feeling the weight of losing his brother become a real probability. I honestly didn’t know what I would have done in his shoes.
Dawson stirred and his eyes fluttered open. He yawned wide and licked his chops. After a moment, he noticed he was in a weird room and began to look around frantically, a growl growing in his chest. Then he saw Joey and he whined in confusion.
“Spider got you, bro,” Joey said as he approached the table and stroked the bandaged wound on Dawson’s leg.
Dawson sniffed the bandage, chuffed once, and then stood on the table, stretching. Then he began to revert back to man form. His fur fell out along with his oversized, insanely sharp teeth. As his snout receded back to meet his face, pearly white human teeth grew as joints popped and tendons shrunk. Within less time than it took to pee, Dawson was standing on all fours on the table. He offered a perfect view of his hairless ass.
With a gagging sound, I turned my head away and shielded my eyes.
“Don’t like it? Then don’t look at it, perv,” Dawson said, amused.
“There’s a nice shower back there, dude,” Joey said to Dawson while he removed the IV, which immediately shot blood out like a water gun. Doc raced to him with a bandage and said,
“It doesn’t work like that in real life. You can’t just remove a needle from your veins and expect nothing to happen.”
There wasn’t that much blood, but it still caught my attention. I remembered how strong I was after I fed off Depweg, and my mouth salivated.
“Gross, dude,” Dawson said as he walked by, noticing me staring at the blood.
“Huh? Oh. Uh…” I was at a loss for words. I had been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, or at least staring at it intently.
“Just fucking with ya, bruh,” Dawson said before disappearing into the other room.
“What was in that vial?” Joey asked Doc Jim.
“I can only guess that it was some powerful faerie magic mixed with herbs from the Summer or Spring Court. I will have to try and procure some.”
“It’s really that good?” I asked.
“The boy was near death,” he said as he gave a sidelong glance at Joey, knowing he had not revealed the whole truth of his brother’s condition. “Now he is fully up and well, as if nothing had happened.”
“Demons are many things,” I started, “but they sure know how to kill in the most efficient ways possible.” I looked toward the now empty vial. “That stuff is going to come at a cost.”
“I will monitor Dawson closely,” Doc Jim said.
“For what?” Joey asked, concern in his voice.
“Anything out of the ordinary, such as withdrawal symptoms, changes in personality, or any neurological dissonance, just to name a few.”
“Oh,” Joey said with a frown as he looked at the floor, his eyes going distant as if he were lost in a churning ocean of thought and doubt.
“Dude,” I said as I approached Joey and set my hand on his shoulder, “this is just to be super safe. In most plausible scenarios, it doesn’t make sense that Taylor would trick us now, just like you said. If anything, he gave us a taste of something amazing to create repeat customers. There will be a price, of that I am sure, but it won’t be today.” I finished by patting Joey on the back and smiling as reassuringly as I knew how.
“You’re scaring me,” Joey said as he slightly recoiled away from me. “It’s like in Terminator 2 when John Connor teaches Arnold to smile at that rest stop in the desert.”
“You always know how to make me feel so pretty,” I jested to cover my wounded pride. I was pretty, right? Tell me I’m pretty!
The water shut off and Dawson came out of the back room wearing formfitting clothes.
“Are you two ready?” I asked.
“Ready for what? We got our asses kicked,” Dawson said, touching his bruised face.
I thought about that for a second. “But he doesn’t know we are coming to him,” I insisted, eager to save Depweg. “We will have the element of surprise.”
“We had that last time too, dude,” Joey replied. Dawson nodded quickly in agreement while pointing to his brother to further accentuate his argument.
“Then he won’t expect the second surprise!” I said with false enthusiasm.
“But why did you freeze when you had the chance to stop him?” Dawson asked.
“It’s a long story. I can’t attack him without him first threatening me. He was defeated, by luck, when I tried to, um, grievously wound him.”
“Bitch, you tried to kill him,” Dawson said.
“Yeah, dude. That shit wasn’t cool. You gotta, like, get hold of that shit and lock it down,” Joey chided.
“Seriously, dude. I kinda like the world the way it is. Know what I mean?” Dawson added.
“I’m…sorry,” I apologized, ashamed. I had let my anger almost destroy all the souls in Heaven and on this earth. Sure wish I had a hole just lying around I could crawl into right about now. I could feel the twins’ eyes judging me. “But, I’m in control now. Plus, I know that I cannot actually kill him unless I think he is about to kill me. So with that knowledge, I say: let’s wound him. Like, a lot,” I added as I pulled the kukri from its sheath on my lower back hidden under my coat. Light glinted and reflected from the surgical lamps in sharp patterns across the room. “Once again I ask, are you two ready to go fuck some shit up?”
16
We climbed into the Uber and traveled the several miles to the outskirts of the park near the lake. As we stepped out and shut our doors, I tipped 20% because I was a benevolent preternatural entity—and because Uber drivers rate their passengers. Did you know that? They can see your rating and decide not to pick you up.
“Time,” I asked in a statement to Dawson as I pointed at him without even looking in his direction.
“Um, I don’t have a watch, dude.”
“Where’s your cellular telephone?” I asked.
“We don’t carry it,” Joey said. “You know; the whole naked thing.”
“That’s why I usually carry a fanny pack,” Dawson added.
“I guess that’s practical,” I said, nodding my new appreciation for the terrible fashion choice that was the fanny pack.
“Practically gay,” Joey said with a snicker.
“Whatever, dude. You’re just jealous of my sweet pack.”
“Does it stay on when you transform?” I asked, intrigued.
“Most of the time. I also fill it with beef jerky, so that makes it easy to find if I do lose it, or if I want a tasty snack.”
I pulled out my phone and noted the time before closing it and glancing at the horizon. “Less than an hour to sunup. If I can’t stop him, it will be up to you two to save Depweg.”
“Question,” Joey said with his index finger in the air, “Why don’t we just wait until dawn anyway?”
“Because I won’t be able to help you, and Depweg is going to be underground or in a fortified structure that will be completely sunproof. A vampire can still be dangerous during the day. Even if Ulric was, for the sake of argument, only a quarter combat effective, at his age, that would still be enough to kill both of you.”
“Got it,” Joey accepted.
“Plus, that would be a boring story.”
“Huh?” they both asked in unison.
“Never mind. Let’s move on, shall we?”
We walked to the edge of the water before Joey asked, “What now, Sherlock?”
“Hop on pop,” I said. The twins looked at each other, both confused and a bit disgusted. “Look, dipshits, one hook onto my torso and the other onto my back. Trust me.”
After a few awkward moments, Dawson called out
, “Back!” before jumping on.
“Goddamn it,” Joey said, dragging his feet until he was standing in front of me. I extended my arms and made a stupid Jim Carrey type face.
“How about a hug?”
Sighing, he walked into my chest and wrapped his arms around my neck.
“Hold on, you two. This might be really fun.” As I spoke, I willed blood to snake out of my hands and down next to me. A little step poked out of both bloodstilts, and I began walking forward. As I met the water, I willed more length to the stilts, and we were raised a few feet above the waterline. We continued forward and more length was created, pressing into the bottom of the lake while keeping us safe and dry above the waterline. I moved forward one step at a time, using my hands to pull the top of the stilts backward and thus forcing the bottom portion to move forward. My feet acted as fulcrums, and within ten minutes of power walking, which did require energy to do, we were almost to the other side of the lake. As the lake’s bottom distance decreased, so too did the stilts, keeping us a consistent few feet above the water.
A smell wafted up and pierced my nose. “Oh, dude! Did one of you fart?”
“Sorry,” Dawson admitted with an embarrassed laugh.
“Lilith, that’s bad!” I said as I tried to blow air from my mouth to force the atomic cloud away.
“Who’s Lilith?” Joey asked.
Seeing as how we had nothing but time as we made our way across the lake, I explained, “As legend has it, she was Adam’s first wife. She cheated on him with the UPS driver or something, and God kicked Lilith out, which left room for him to create Eve. Lilith walked the barren Earth until Samael was cast from Heaven and fell to Hell. She saw where he’d landed and went to him, and they fell in love. As the ruler of Hell, Samael was bestowed with powers in order to better do his job, which he of course exploited and used as he saw fit. Samael, now Satan (aka Mephistopheles, Baal, Diablo, the Devil, Most Unclean, and a shit ton of other colorful and clever names), wanted Lilith by his side for eternity, but she was now a mortal after being cast out of Eden, and would die someday. Using his new unholy powers, Satan figured out a way to make Lilith live forever by letting her live off the life energy of mortals, which there were now plenty of thanks to her replacement in Eden, Eve. Satan tricked Eve in order to provide an endless supply of energy for his love to live off. It was then that Lilith became the mother of all vampires.”
“Sounds like a cool movie,” Joey said.
“Or at least a Netflix series,” I added while turning to the camera and winking.
“Can I ask a question?” Dawson spoke.
“You just did.”
“Can I ask another question?”
“Do I really need to point out the irony here?” I said, rolling my eyes.
“What’s with sunlight again?”
“Oh, that’s actually a great question, and since it seems we have some time, I’ll do my best to explain further. As younglings, you need to learn about this stuff anyway,” I said, enjoying the chance to pass knowledge on to the next generation of supes. “Sunlight cleanses all magic. Well, most magic, and vampires are almost entirely made up of energy from the mortals we have fed from, which translates into magic. I prefer to think of it as our preternatural essence being better able to assimilate energy directly from the source, like a fish extracting oxygen from water. Magic is just a way of explaining something in a simple and lazy manner, at least that’s my opinion. No one knows for sure, but I fully believe the universe has a checks and balances system that provides counterweights to the super scale. Think about it. Every super- and preternatural being has a glaring weakness, something that prevents their species from overwhelming the population of mortals. Us vampires, we attain sustenance directly by extracting the life energy from the blood that pumps through the mortal’s veins. Each cell takes in calories from sources like glucose and glycogen, along with B vitamins, in order to create energy. Every cell in the human body produces energy by utilizing the mitochondria as the powerhouses. I pull energy from the cells in the blood that I drain and store it as my own. The older I become, the more energy I am able to store, therefore the stronger I become.
“You two are in the same process, only the delivery method differs—along with a few minor details. You eat the flesh of living things and gain energy directly from their meat. Depweg has confided that he thinks the were-virus enhances your metabolic rate, allowing you to absorb a substantially greater amount of energy from the same amount of food as when you were simply mortals. I also believe that you are stealing the stored energy in the muscles’ cells, and that maybe the glycogen and glucose is being digested and transferred into your own body instead of being shit out. I have seen Depweg eat almost an entire platoon worth of meaty thighs, calves, and biceps before popping a squat and plopping out a normal log. It is like a freaking magic trick to watch him turn what had to be hundreds of pounds of flesh into one little turd. Your virus—and I’m only guessing here—makes your body utilize almost everything you put into it. It would explain your decelerated aging and immense power in were form. Heck, even in your man-suits you are stronger than any mortal alive.”
“You just like to hear yourself talk, don’t you?” Dawson joked.
“Yes,” I said as I stepped off the stilts and onto the beach, letting the blood flow back into my palms. The twins dropped down gracefully and turned to walk with me. I checked my phone again and saw that Depweg had not moved, and that he was due north from our position.
“What did you mean about the checks and balances?” Joey asked, keeping the conversation going. I could tell they both enjoyed learning, but Joey was eating it all up eagerly.
“Well, let’s see. How do you make a werewolf?”
“We have to bite someone, and if the virus doesn’t kill them due to a mismatch, they become a werewolf,” Joey explained.
“Right, but how hard is it for most werewolves to just take a bite of a mortal and not finish the job?”
“Really freaking hard,” Dawson said. “It’s why we prefer to hunt animals, because we can eat all of them without having to worry about killing someone. Humans aren’t keen on other people getting eaten. They start asking questions and doing investigations. I know I can survive getting shot by a gun, depending on the round, but I don’t know how many shots it would take to put me down, permanently.”
“Exactly my point. As a werewolf, once your…well, I don’t know what you call it when you lose control once you are hungry enough…meat rage, I guess? Once you go all meat rage, it’s hard to stop, which means any mortal you want to turn into a werewolf must be someone really special to combat that preternatural instinct to feed.”
“What about vampires?” Dawson asked.
“Which part are you referring to?” I inquired.
“Why aren’t there more of you? How do you turn someone into a bloodsucker?”
“First, you have to drain them to the very brink of death. I can only guess that the soul has to be weak and leaving the body to allow the maker to use their blood to corrupt and change it. It’s kind of like upgrading a computer; you have to open the case and remove the old components that you wish to upgrade before putting in the brand-new ones. Once you put the case back on, your computer is still technically your computer, but now it’s better, faster, and has a tremendous singing voice.” I waited for a laugh or even a chuckle at my little joke. Nothing. Moving on, philistines. “Ulric drained me to the point where my soul drifted off toward Heaven. I still remember the change and the pain I felt as my soul was forever altered and corrupted.”
“That’s pretty deep, bro,” Joey said.
I was staring off into the distance as we walked in silence, not focusing on anything as the image of the armor-clad angel filled the theater in my mind. “Heaven is not for you, abomination,” he said, his deep voice threatening to burst the speakers and rain sparks onto the seats below.
“So…if you die…?” Dawson asked without tact.
“But haven’t you done, like, some really, really good stuff too?” Joey asked.
“I do whatever Father Thomes Philseep tells me to do. He is helping me use my abilities to keep evil under control. He says God is watching and approves of my actions, but I can’t be sure my black soul is being bleached or not. Or at least enough to make a difference in the end.” Something struck me with all this heavy talk about souls and whatnot. “Heck, tonight might be my end. At least I’d die knowing I wouldn’t have to suffer for long before Hell was destroyed. Along with Heaven and Earth, though.”
We stopped at the edge of a tree line. I looked at the twins and nodded once while putting my finger over my lips. They nodded back and began to strip. We were downwind from where the phone said Depweg was, though I couldn’t smell anything significant yet. Closing my eyes, I let my Predatory Self grab the wheel as I expanded my senses in all directions. The night transformed like a flat picture turned 3D. Smells became distinct instead of one mixed odor. The cacophony of the woods became separate players in an orchestra, the wind singing through the leaves and grass while insects chirped and the water lightly crashed on the shore. My eyes opened to reveal a forest of singular trees, each with their own markings, growth patterns, and story to tell. I could see the heat signature of birds resting in the trees and small mammals skittering on the forest floor.
There was a chuff next to me as I turned to see a black wolf with a white patch on its right eye looking at me. I pivoted my head to the other side and saw a white wolf with a black patch on its left eye. They were yin and yang; opposites but the same.
We started through the forest, and within a handful of minutes, we arrived at a large and modern house. It didn’t belong here at all. Maybe if it had been a log cabin instead of this mansion in the middle of a national park. It was two stories tall and looked modern, with sharp angles and thick glass everywhere, allowing the denizens a view to the outside from all directions. Wait, how the hell did the owner even get clearance to build here?